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Downriver Tools Sherline Cross Slide Table Lever

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gerritv:
I have been remiss in keeping my Fore and Aft Build thread updated, the engine is nearing completion.

After making a pile of studs from M3 all-thread sourced from AliExpress, I needed decent looking nuts. I had bought small nuts from https://www.microschroeven.nl/ but don't have enough of them and they are IMO too small in cross dimension for this purpose. Commercial ones, besides not being machined, are too large across flats.

So out came the GH Thomas Model Engineers Workshop Manual and I made a Sherline version of his chuck backstop. That left the issue of winding the cross slide back and forth to part, face etc. Steamer had mentioned having the plans for the Downriver Tools plans for Sherline, and in the meantime I found that Robert Sudowski is still in business, just not visible on the internet. A pleasant phone call, transfer of US$ funds and I have a full set of plans for the Sherline sized bed turret, related 1/2" shank tooling and the cross slide lever mechanism.

I didn't take any photos during the build, it is all relative plain milling and drilling. Fit of the pivot pins is important to reduce the risk of chatter when cutting.

There are 2 setups needed. One for drilling and parting off the stock into blanks, the other for facing, making the washer step and tapping. Facing and parting are done from the rear tool post with a thin parting blade, the washer step is done from the front tool post with a sharp tool.

The photo shows the 3 types of nuts, I made the one in the middle. Some small refinements in the process, mostly using a file to round edges should yield good looking parts.

gerrit

steamer:
Thats awesome!    I have a bed turret for my lathe and I want to set it up for screw studs ect.

Watching along!

Dave

AVTUR:
Gerrit

Thanks for the picture. It should be easy to fit a cross slide lever to a Cowells but I think I will leave it for the present.

AVTUR

petertha:
That's really cool. I guess the lever travel must traverse the 2 tool blocks from their outer positions as a function of part diameter & setup, across the spindle line to complete its operation. So how much travel does the lever provide? Can you show any further details of how the lever mechanism operates or acts on the table? I'm guessing you must remove or somehow disconnect the cross bed lead screw? (not too familiar with Sherlines).

I had a similar idea on my 14x40 lathe but there is no easy or fast way of disconnecting the lead screw thread, so its either spin the leadscrew back & forth like a mad man within its defined travel, or build some kind of dedicated slide table that mounts on top. So the work to benefit ratio of just changing tools on the regular dovetail tool post seemed to be diminishing for me at least. But I can see this as being really useful on lathes that are more amenable to the mechanism.

Roger B:
A good addition to the lathe and a good result  :praise2:  :praise2:  :wine1:

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